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Esposa de: "The Greek" and "The Berber"
Madre de Yunani and unknown
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A ruthless steadfast warrior, as well as a merciful leader who liberated thousands of slaves this was Dihya al Kahina, a Jewish Berber Northern African woman.
Dihya al Kahina lived in Northern Africa at the end of the 7th century. In Muslim sources she is described as dark skinned with lots of hair and huge eyes. Fascinated by her exotic image, historian Nahum Slouschz described her as fair as a horse, strong as a wrestler, a true desert woman, healthy and fast on her feet, an excellent rider and a shooter who never misses, and studied her character throughout Northern Africa. Slouschz asserted that Dihya meant Jewess and that al Kahina referred to the family of Kohanim (priests).
Born to a Jewish-Moorish-Berber tribe from todays Mauritania, Dihya headed the resistance to the Muslim invaders of the Ummaya dynasty, who conquered the Maghreb towards the west during the 7th and 8th centuries. Her adventures are dated 687-697, when Hassan ben Naaman, military commander of the Khalif Abd Al Malech, was heading towards Carthage in order to occupy it. He had 45,000 soldiers under his command and was prepared to almost every scenario except that of an army of Berber tribes headed by a woman battling against him.
Dihya offered peace but the Muslim commander would not accept, unless she acknowledged the authority of the Kahllif and adopted Islam, an ultimatum she rejected scornfully. According to Slouschz, she was descendent of a priestly family deported from Judea by Pharaoh Necho in the days of King Yoshiahu. She did not intend to enter the family history as a leader who caused yet another deportation of the dynasty, and certainly did not intend to convert to Islam. I shall die in the religion I was born to, she shortly answered the commanders demands, and went on forging her steel sword.
Berber tribes from all over the Maghreb arrived to join al Kahina in her campaign, which they gloriously won after exhausting battles. Defeated and ashamed Hassan had to escape with what was left of his troops to Tripoli, where he had to face the Khalif and tell him of his defeat. Al Kahina chased Hassans troops all the way to Carthage, and then became the citys ruler.
Owing to her Officer and Gentlelady ethics, she set free all the war prisoners she had captured, except for one: Haled ben Yazid, whom she adopted as her son, on top of her two other sons, one Berber and the other Greek. Apparently, Dihya was no innocent lass. Slouschz wrote she had three husbands forced to satisfy her intense needs, and that she was addicted to the lusts of the flesh with all her youthful flaming temper.
It took Hassan five years to recover from the losses caused in the battle with Dihya. In the second round, al Kahina got the lower hand, as Hassan had this time a much larger force. He managed to conquer Carthage and to defeat the Berber rebels. According to Eli Eshed, editor of ???? ????? magazine, in addition to all her virtues, al Kahina also had the gift of foreseeing the future, therefore she knew she was going to be defeated and advised her sons to cross the lines and join the Muslims. She herself would not surrender, and used a scorched-earth policy, ordering her warriors to leave no crops, possessions, or livestock, wherever they retreated.
After her defeat, al Kahina took her own life by falling into a deep well. The Muslims pulled her body, severed the head and sent it to the Khalif. The well is called up until today The Kahina Well.
Naturally, not all researchers share Slouschzs firm conclusions about Dihya al Kahina. Prof. Shlomo Sand, for example, claims that Dihyas origin was not from the priests from Judea, but rather from a converted Berber tribe, which Sand refers to in his study The Invention of the Jewish People as nothing less than the genetic origin of the entire Northern African Jewry. Other studies doubt the historical authenticity of the character of the Jewish queen and commander, and claim she is merely a folk tale.
Whether history of tale, the stories of the bravery of Dihya al Kahina encouraged many peoples to claim part of the myth for themselves. The Muslims said that after her defeat she converted and used her as a classic Muslim role model. The Berbers considered her their own local hero, and even the French compared her to their national hero, Joan of Arc, who fought the English and similarly to Dihya was eventually conquered by her enemies.
The character of Dihya also inspired the members of the Jewish resistance in Algiers, under José Aboulker, whose mother, Berthe Bénichou-Aboulker, wrote a play about the Jewish heroine. Other literal works were composed after Kahina, for example Pierre Benoits Atlantida, about a queen heading a Berber lost tribe and turns her lovers into living statues. Dihya is also mentioned in an episode of the t.v. show Xena: Warrior Princess. It is disappointing that in Israel her story is hardly ever mentioned, with one exception: author Limor Sharir dedicated a few chapters in her book Secrets of Marrekesh to Dihya. But mostly she remained unknown. Will someone take the challenge we offer here, and turn her story into the literal or cinematic saga she deserves? We sure hope so.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahina
al-Kahina bint D_j_arawa al-Zanat Dihya ?????, (early 7th century - late 7th century) Wikipedia
al-Kahina (the Sorceress) was the guiding spirit of Berber resistance to the Arab invaders led by ?assan b. al-Nu?man [q.v.] after the collapse of Byzantine power marked by the fall of Carthage (73/692-3). Her true personalitywhich must have been highly complexis very difficult to discern, for only the distorted reflections of her real features can be detected behind the legend.
There is no agreement even on her real name, for al-Kahina is only a nickname given to her by the Arabs. It is said that she was named DihyaIbn K_h_aldun (tr. de Slane, Berbères, i, 172) mentions a Berber tribe known by this nameof which Dahya, Dahiya, Damya, Damiya, or Da?ya could be merely variant spellings. There is the same doubt about her descent; she is said to be the daughter of Tatit, or again of Matiya ( = Matthias, Matthew) son of Tifan (= Theophanus).
If this means that al-Kahina was descended from those Berbers of mixed blood, the issue of mixed marriages, it would help to explain her authority, not only over her compatriots but also over the Byzantines. Several other indications confirm this hypothesis. Al-Kahina herself is said to have married a Greek. We are told that she had two sons: the one of Berber descent, the other of a Greek father (Yunani).
She was also, contrary to general belief, Christian by religion rather than Jewish. Her tribe, the nomadic and pastoral D_j_arawa, a subdivision of the Zanata, themselves related to the Bu?r, had indeed first adopted Judaism, but like many other tribes, such as the Nafusa, had afterwards been converted to Christianity.
When al-Kahina appeared on the scene of history she was a widow, and was certainly very old. Legend relates that she lived for 127 years, 35 of them as queen (malika) of the Aurès, where in 477, following a successful rebellion against the Vandals, a first independent Berber kingdom had already been set up, governed by Iabdas.
Like those Arab queens cited by T. Fahd (Divination arabe, 98), she was clearly an ecstatic. At the moment of inspiration she became wildly excited, let her hair stream out, and beat her breast. She also practised more orthodox techniques of divination, such as reading the future in gravel, and there is no doubt that she owed a large part of her power to her prophetic gifts.
Al-Kahina took up the challenge thrown down by Kusayla, who had mobilized in particular the settled Baranis. At first she was victorious. After taking Carthage and destroying the organized Byzantine forces, ?assan turned towards the Aurès, the stronghold of Berber resistance. He regrouped his forces on the banks of the Meskiana and attacked.
Al-Kahina did likewise, after demolishing Bag_h_aya, which was probably her capital and which she wished to avoid falling into the aggressors hands. The decisive confrontation took place on the banks of the Oued Nini, probably not far from the railway station of the same name which today is situated 16 km. to the south of Aïn-Beïda on the railway line to Khenchela. The battle was so disastrous for ?assan that for many years afterwards the Arabs called the oued where it took place Nahr al-Bala? (river of trials), or, for less apparent reasons, Wadi l-?Ad_h_ara (valley of the virgins). this campaign, ?assans first setback, had an epilogue in the territory of Gabès in the course of a final battle which drove the invaders out of Ifri?iya.
?assan was ordered to halt his retreat four stages to the east of Tripoli, where he established his camp (?u?ur ?assan) and bided his time. Al-Kahina enlarged the area of her authority, but her power certainly did not spread over the whole Mag_h_rib, nor even the whole of Ifri?iya, as is stated in some sources (Ibn ?Id_h_ari, Bayan, i, 36; al-Nuwayri, Nihaya, in de Slane, Berbères, i, 340).
She treated the Arab prisoners well; she had adopted one of them according to the Berber rite of simulated suckling, an influential chief, K_h_alid b. Yazid (sometimes called Yazid b. K_h_alid), who was regarded as a spy from ?assans camp.
Perhaps she wished to establish good relations with the Arabs and bring them to renounce their designs, of which she was doubtless informed, by means more reliable than divination. It was probably the failure of this policy which forced her in despair to devastate the country, adopting in the face of a stubborn enemy a scorched earth policy, which Solomon had already employed in 539 against King Iabdas when he was entrenched in the Aurès (Ch.-E. Dufourcq, Berbérie et Ibérie, ... in Rev. Historique, fasc. 488, p. 300, citing Procopius).
These alleged devastations have been a matter of controversy for many years. Some modern historians deny them altogether. The Arab chroniclers exaggerated them to an enormous extent. In fact, it seems that they cannot be denied completely, but nor should they be seen as a cataclysm. They could not have extended beyond certain regions of Ifri?iya, but they must nevertheless have been sufficiently serious to disaffect large sections of the settled population, who, when they did not seek refuge in the Mediterranean islands or even in Spain, were ready to beg ?assan to intervene.
?assan, who had kept himself informed of the situation and had received reinforcements, once more invaded Ifri?iya, probably in 78/697-8 (the chronology is not clear), this time probably with the support of some Berber contingents hostile to the policy of al-Kahina.
Henceforth the indigenous peoples no longer made common cause. From this moment an air of defeatism began to prevail in the Aurès, and this inspired Kahina, her hair flowing, in ecstasy (nas_h_iratan s_h_a?araha), to give voice in her desperate state to those alarming prophecies which were but the warnings of despair and have come down to us as so many oracles. The first clash took place in the Gabès region and was unfavourable to al-Kahina.
This is the logical moment to place the dramatic episode, unlikely yet probably true, in which the queen, certain of her forthcoming destruction, advised her sons to change sides before it was too late. She herself, with ?assan on her heels, fled for refuge to the mountains of the Aurès.
The final engagement took place in a place which al-Maliki (Riya?, i, 36) calls ?arfa: the form Tabarka given by al-Bakri (Masalik, 57, trans. 121), Ibn Nad_j_i (Ma?alim, i, 61), and Ibn Abi Dinar (Mu?nis, 35) is surely a graphic corruption of This. Here, probably at the exit of D_j_abal Neshshar about 50 km. north of Tobna, al-Kahina fought her last battle, which, we are told, both sides regarded as a fight to the death, before perishing beside a well which long bore her name. Her energy and determination made a considerable impression, and some modern historians hâve seen in her a sort of Berber Joan of Arc (de Lartigues, Monographie, 182).
(M. Talbi)
Bibliography
Sources in chronological order: Ibn ?Abd al-?akam, Futu?, ed. and tr. A. Gateau, Algiers 1948, 76-8
Balad_h_uri, Futu?, ed. Ri?wan Mu?ammad Ri?wan, Cairo 1932, 231
Maliki, Riya?, ed. H. Monés, Cairo 1951, i, 32-6
Bakri, Masalik, ed. and tr. de Slane, Paris 1965, text, 7-8, 20, 31, 57, 145, 182, tr., 22-3, 48, 69, 121, 277, 340
Ibn al-At_h_ir, Kamil, Cairo 1357/1938-9, iv, 31-3
Ya?ut, Buldan, Beirut 1957, v, 339, s.v. Nini
?Ubayd Allah b. ?ali? b. ?Abd al-?alim, Fat? al-?Arab li l-Mag_h_rib, ed. E. Lévi-Provençal, in RIEEI, Madrid 1954, ii, 222-3 (tr. in Arabica, i, 40-41)
Pseudo-Ibn al-Ra?i?, Ta?rik_h_, ed. al-Kaâbi, Tunis 1968, 55-64
Ibn ?Id_h_ari, Bayan, ed. G. S. Colin and E. Lévi-Provençal, Leiden 1948, i, 35-8
Tid_j_ani, Ri?la, Tunis 1958, 58
Nuwayri, ¶ Nihaya, tr. de Slane, al-Wazir al-Sarrad_j_, ?ulal, ed. M. H. al-?ila, Tunis 1970, i, 533-37
in Berbères, Algiers 1852, i, 340-2
Ibn K_h_aldun, ?Ibar, Beirut 1950, vi, 214, 218-19, vii, 17-18, tr. de Slane, Berbères, i, 208-9, 213-15
Ibn Nad_j_i, Ma?alim, Tunis 1902, i, 55-61
Ibn Abi Dinar, Mu?nis, Tunis 1967, 21, 34-5
al-Mawla A?mad, Ri?la, Fez n.d., 48-51 (trans. Berbrugger, Voyages, Paris 1846, 234-41)
al-Urt_h_ilani, Nuzha, Algiers 1326/1908, 101-4
Ibn Abi l-?iyaf, It?af, Tunis 1963, i, 82-3
Na?iri, Isti??a, Rabat 1954, i, 58, 82-3. Modern studies: S. W. Baron, A social and religious history of the Jews
M. Dall Arche, Scomparsa del Cristianismo ed espansione dellIslam nellAfrica Settentrionale, Rome 1967, 125-32
Ch.-E. Dufourcq, Berbérie et Ibérie médievales: un problème de rupture, in Rev. Historique (Paris 1968), fasc. 488, 297-302, 311
H. Fournel, Berbers, Paris 1875-81, i, 215-25
Masqueray, Traditions de lAurès, in Bull, de corr. Afr., 1885, 1-2, 80-3
E. Mercier, Hist. de lAfrique Septentrionale, Paris 1888, i, 212-6
de Lartigues, Monographie de lAurès, Constantine 1904, 182
E. F. Gautier, Le Passé de lAfrique du Nord, Paris 1952, 270-80
G. Marçais, La Berbérie musulmane et lOrient au Moyen Age, Paris 1946, 29, 34-5
H. Monés, Fat? al-?Arab li l-Mag_h_rib, Cairo 1947, 242-59
A. Gateau, Conquête de lAfrique du Nord, Paris 1948, 161, n. 106
E. Lévi-Provençal, Un nouveau récit de la conquête de lAfrique du Nord par les Arabes, in Arabica, i (1954), 32-3
H. Z. Hirschberg, Ha-Kahina ha-berberit, in Tarbitz, xxvi (1957), 370-83
T. Lewicki, Prophètes, devins et magiciens chez les Berbères médiévaux, in Folia Orientalia, vii (1965), 4, 6
idem, Survivances chez les Berbères médiévaux dère musulmane de cultes anciens et de croyances païennes, in Folia Orientalia, viii (1967), 7
Sa?d Zag_h_lul ?Abd al-?amid, Ta?rik_h_ al-Mag_h_rib al-?Arabi, Cairo 1965, 182-95
H. Simon, Le judaïsme berbère dans lAfrique ancienne, in Rev. dHist. de Phil. Religieuses, Strasburg 1946, 6, 8
T. Fahd, Divination arabe, Leiden 1966, 92-3, 97-8, 100
M. Talbi, Un nouveau fragment de lHistoire de lOccident Musulman (62-196/682-812), lépopée dal-Kahina, in CT, 1971, no. 73.
Citation Talbi, M.. " al-Kahina." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill Online , 2012. Reference. Jim Harlow. 12 August 2012
Encyclopedia of Islam
Further Reading
Ibn Khaldun, Kitab al-Ibar. Usually cited as: Histoire des Berbères et des dynasties musulmanes de l'Afrique septentrionale, a French trans. by William McGuckin de Slane, Paul Geuthner, Paris, 1978. This 19th-century translation should now be regarded as obsolete. There is a more accurate modern French translation by Abdesselam Cheddadi, Peuples et Nations du Monde: extraits des Ibar, Sindbad, Paris, 1986 & 1995. Hirschberg (1963) gives an English translation of the section where Ibn Khaldun discusses the supposed Judaized Jarawa.
Hannoum, Abdelmajid. (2001). Post-Colonial Memories: The Legend of the Dihya, a North African Heroine (Studies in African Literature). ISBN 0-325-00253-3. This is a study of the legend of the Dihya in the 19th century and later. The first chapter is a detailed critique of how the legend of the Dihya emerged after several transformations from the 9th century to the 14th.
H. Z. Hirschberg, The Problem of the Judaized Berbers', Journal of African History, 4 (1963), 313-339.
H.Z. Hirschberg, A History of the Jews in North Africa. E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1974 (2nd ed., Eng. trans.).
al-Maliki, Riyad an-Nufus. Partial French trans. (including the story of the Dihya) by H.R. Idris, 'Le récit d'al-Maliki sur la Conquête de l'Ifriqiya', Revue des Etudes Islamiques 37 (1969) 117-149. The accuracy of this translation has been criticised by Talbi (1971) and others.
Modéran, Yves. (2005). Article Dihya (Dihya)', Encyclopédie Berbère vol. 27, p. 4102-4111. The most recent critical study of the historical sources.
Talbi, Mohammed. (1971). Un nouveau fragment de l'histoire de l'Occident musulman (62-196/682-812) : l'épopée d'al Kahina. (Cahiers de Tunisie vol. 19 p. 19-52). An important historiographical study.
at-Tijani, Rihlat. Arabic text ed. by H.H. Abdulwahhab, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt, 1994. French trans. by A. Rousseau in Journal Asiatique, section containing the story of the Dihya is in n.s. 4, vol. 20 (1852) 57-208.